This blog is about some of the things in my life that I enjoy doing - Zentangles®, cycling, and needle crafts. Hopefully you will enjoy the variety and may it encourage you to begin or follow your own adventures. Welcome, Donald Wilka

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Friday, July 18, 2014

Black Tile Technique: Zenstone wash with Glaze pens.

Did these as examples for a class I am doing. Had tried something similar to this before but cannot find the picture that I took. That one did not use the Zenstone but used colored pencil wash. They were hard to photograph because of the reflection of the Glaze pens. Tried to diffuse but was not successful. Is a little beyond my photography skills. Ended up scanning them.

Basically, the process is covering the tile with a wash using the Zenstone and then using the black Glaze pen to make your tangles. Think it would work equally well with other gel pens, just would not get the 3-D effect that get with the Glaze pens. I did find out after doing the first one that you really do need to load up the soapstone as some of it will rub off as you are working on the tile. Did not do this with the square tile. Here are the results.

This was the first one I did. The wash shows up a little on the scan. It is also lighter as I tried to put a fixative on it and accidentally sprayed too much on it. Since it is wet, it took away some of the contrast. Still looks good though, probably better in person.

On this one I put a lot more of the Zenstone on the tile and it did not rub off as much. Not sure that the scan really shows the 3-D effect of the Glaze pens that well. While the black on white is a nice effect, I think I may like a little color for this technique.

Still learning to use the Glaze pens. Like the other gel pens have to use a light touch to get a thinner line. If not, it does drop a lot of ink and will use the ink quickly. When have some time plan to experiment with what it will look like with different colored pens or even metallic pens.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

1 comment:

This is quite an interesting technique Donald and your tiles are delightful. I've not tried the zenstone - I will have to order some. It reminds me of something I had seen in my dad's workshop - don't know what he used it for - it was triangular I think, probably used to mark his work before cutting - who knows :)